Nikon D5000 Digital SLR Camera - Body Only

Product Information

Different shapes: The Nikon D5000 is a little taller than the Canon T1i, and a little narrower side-to-side. This came from me back when I was working for one of the world's leaders in measurement instruments, hee hee. You can flip it all around, and even flip it closed for protection and so you can just shoot like a film camera, without the distraction of looking at the LCD after every shot. Those who require dual control wheels, more dedicated buttons, a large viewfinder and greater compatibility with older AF lenses will still be better served by a D90 and are therefore advised to save up for the higher specified model.

This adds a tiny delay between when you press the shutter and when the mirror flips up and the picture gets taken. Nikon's 3D Color Matrix Metering system employs a 420-pixel RGB light meter that covers most of the Nikon D5000's image area (the D300 and higher models use a 1,005-pixel RGB sensor).

The major benefit of capturing video with a digital SLR like the Nikon D5000 is that you can take advantage of the wide range of SLR lenses, from extreme wide-angle to telephoto. No DX camera, regardless of rated ISO, is anywhere near as clean as any of the FX cameras like the D3, D3X and D700. In terms of flexibility, Nikon's bottom-hinged LCD is midway between Sony's simple tilting screen and the left-hinged, free-angle monitors offered by Olympus and Panasonic. The Nikon D5000's shutter is expected to last 100,000 cycles, and a new Quiet Release Mode reduces shutter noise for use in very quiet situations. The feature set of the Nikon D5000 is more complicated than the D60 or D40, so be prepared to dig deeper and read the manual to more thoroughly enjoy the Nikon D5000.

For the images already captured, the Nikon D5000 offers a broad range of retouching tools, including post-capture D-lighting (useful if you forgot to turn on Active D-lighting before capture), red-eye correction, trimming, monochrome conversion, different filter effects, colour adjustments, image resizing, image overlay, in-camera raw processing, quick auto retouching, straightening of crooked pictures, lens distortion correction, perspective control (reduction of keystoning) and the creation of a low-resolution stop-motion movie from still shots (particularly interesting for shots taken with the interval timer shooting feature, though limited in terms of resolution and frame rate).

Though the Nikon D5000's phase-detect autofocus speed tested very well in our lab tests, turning in 0. As easy to use as any entry-level DSLR in auto modes, the D5000 provides greater speed, reliability and versatility plus advanced amenities.